for it is pity men of such rare wits
should be subject to the pleasures of such rude groomes.' The 'only
Shake-scene' is a punning denunciation of Shakespeare. The tirade was
probably inspired by an established author's resentment at the energy of
a young actor--the theatre's factotum--in revising the dramatic work of
his seniors with such masterly effect as to imperil their hold on the
esteem of manager and playgoer. The italicised quotation travesties a
line from the third piece in the trilogy of Shakespeare's 'Henry VI:'

Oh Tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide.

But Shakespeare's amiability of character and versatile ability had
already won him admirers, and his successes excited the sympathetic
regard of colleagues more kindly than Greene. In December 1592 Greene's
publisher, Henry Chettle, prefixed an apology for Greene's attack on the
young actor to his 'Kind Hartes Dreame,' a tract reflecting on phases of
contemporary social life. 'I am as sory,' Chettle wrote, 'as if the
originall fault had beene my fault, because myselfe have seene his
[_i.e._ Shakespeare's] demeanour no lesse civill than he [is] exelent in
the qualitie he professes, besides divers of worship have reported his
uprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace
in writing that aprooves his art.'

Divided authorship of 'Henry VI.'

The first of the three plays dealing with the reign of Henry VI was
originally published in the collected edition of Shakespeare's works; the
second and third plays were previously printed in a form very different
from that which they subsequently assumed when they followed the first
part in the folio. Criticism has proved beyond doubt that in these plays
Shakespeare did no more than add, revise, and correct other men's work.
In 'The First Part of Henry VI' the scene in the Temple Gardens, where
white and red roses are plucked as emblems by the rival political parties
(act ii. sc. iv.), the dying speech of Mortimer, and perhaps the wooing
of Margaret by Suffolk, alone bear the impress of his style. A play
dealing with the second part of Henry VI's reign was published
anonymously from a rough stage copy in 1594, with the title 'The first
part of the Contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and
Lancaster.' A play dealing with the third part was published with
greater care next year under the title 'The True Tragedie of Richard,
Duke of Yorke, and the death of good Kin